[ExI] Under the libertarian yoke

[Damien Sullivan]

On Fri, May 02, 2008 at 01:25:05PM -0700, The Avantguardian wrote:

> When I was in college, a friend of mine named James Pitts wrote a science
> fiction short story regarding genetically-engineered bacteria that when
> injected into an oil field rapidly metabolized the oil and polymerized it into
> a fibrous gelatinous mass that was impossible to pump out of the ground.
> 
> Such an organism used on oil fields throughout the world might render them
> useless thus bringing the world to the point it would be in a few decades any
> way. One could concievably do this without violence or even without anyone

Insofar as the oil fields are considered private property, I think that
would be the libetarian violence known as theft.  Or wilful property
damage, perhaps more precisely.  Certainly not voluntary from the POV of
the oil companies, so I'd say it fails the spirit of the challenge.

-xx- Damien X-)